Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1907 — OVERCROWDING. [ARTICLE]

OVERCROWDING.

One of the Greatest Evils In the Rearing of Doqgestic Poultry. There are many poultry keepens who provide their fowls with a large enough house, but have only sufficient land to accommodate half or a quarter the number of fowls that are crowded on to It, while I have seen scores of cases where both houses and runs were of astonishingly small dimensions —ln fact, so small that the idea of keeping poultry in them was absurd, writes George Scott of Pudsey, Yorkshire, England, in American Poultry Journal. Now, it Is impossible to state any hard and fast rules as regards the size of a poultry house or run requisite for a certain number of fowls, but it may be roughly stated that In building a fowlhouse about five square feet of floor space should be allowed for every adult fowl. This estimate Is liable to modifications, according to the size of the fowls and the height of the house. the open fronted or fresh air type of poultry house half this amount of floor space will be sufficient for each fowl. In all cases It is advisable to give fowls as much liberty as possible, for they are never at their best when kept In confinement. In many cases, however, this course is Inadmissible, and under these circumstances at least fifty square feet of ground should be allowed for each fowl, and a breed should be kept which Is best able to stand confinement, for the varieties differ considerably In this respect. Of course it is essential for fowls to be confined during the breeding season and, provided the runs are large enough or the number of fowls In each run small enough, all will be well, but It is the packing and jamming of a large number of fowls into a small run that works such havoc among the birds and their progeny, overcrowding being responsible for more than half the diseases to which poultry are subject.